Donald Trump Spent a Portion of His Day Reading the Mind of a Dead Gorilla

Just like you.

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Per The Week:

Donald Trump took on the press during a news conference on Tuesday, slamming the media for being "dishonest" and made up of "not good people." Trump had appeared in order to account for charitable contributions his campaign said it made toward veteran organizations during an Iowa fundraiser in January, but he repeatedly lashed out at the press in attendance for requiring him to do so. The press returned fire, with CNN's Jim Acosta accusing Trump of not being able to cope with the scrutiny it takes to run for president. "I've seen you on TV, you're a real beauty," Trump replied. Trump later pivoted to calling ABC reporter Tom Llamas, who was in attendance, "a sleazy guy." "He's a sleaze, in my book." Trump said."Is this what it is going to be like covering you, if you are president?" another reporter finally asked. "Yeah," Trump said. "Yeah, it is."

I mention this in order to remind the universe that this is the man to whom the Republican Party would like to hand the entire federal law enforcement apparatus.

Also, per The Week:

Though a lot can be said on the radio, SiriusXM says that it draws the line at what guest Brad Thor said about Donald Trump last week on Beck's program. The fiction writer hypothesized that it might be necessary to break the law to oust Trump from the presidency: If Congress won't remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that if, if, he oversteps his mandate as president, his constitutional-granted authority, I should say, as president. If he oversteps that, how do we get him out of office? And I don't think there is a legal means available. I think it will be a terrible, terrible position the American people will be in to get Trump out of office because you won't be able to do it through Congress. A vocal supporter of Ted Cruz's run for the GOP nomination, Beck "did not immediately admonish or distance himself from the comments," Politico reports. SiriusXM says the comments "may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office," which it says it can't "condone."

And one more item, this one from Tiger Beat On The Potomac:

Ben Carson didn't hold back Monday morning describing the direction he sees the United States going. "America right now is like a cruise ship that is about to go off of Niagara Falls with tremendous carnage and death," the former GOP presidential candidate warned during a Memorial Day appearance on Fox News' "Fox & Friends."

It might have escaped your attention, but the country has drifted into Bedlam. 

The crazy candidate is threatening the representatives of large media conglomerates. Large media conglomerates are disciplining the crazy people to whom they pay millions of dollars because the crazy people are saying crazy things about the crazy candidate for president. Meanwhile, Ben Carson is still roaming the landscape talking about "tremendous carnage." And death.

Can anyone seriously know where all this will end? Is it that hard to imagine He, Trump endlessly litigating the results of any state in which he loses by less than 12 points? Is it really that fantastical to imagine that he rises up in open revolt against the results in the Electoral College? Can you point out one constitutional barrier that he wouldn't gleefully trash in pursuit of what he wants? Can you name one institution of self-government that he wouldn't sell out at a cheap price to feed his own ego?

He doesn't recognize any restraints, so he's not restrained by them. He doesn't recognize any limits, so he's not bounded by them.

He doesn't recognize any restraints, so he's not restrained by them. He doesn't recognize any limits, so he's not bounded by them. Both winning and losing the presidency require different kinds of humility, and both of them are beyond most people, let alone a guy who can't conceive of any thought that floats through his mind as unimportant, and who can't conceive of any appetite he has as less than vital, and whose capacity for making himself the victim seem almost limitless. 

He will make a mess of things and then try to profit from the destruction. Tell me I'm wrong in November.

Oh, and as part of the press conference today, somebody asked him about the gorilla in Cincinnati. The idea that this question is somehow beneath the dignity of the national press corps—or, more hilariously, that it is somehow beneath the dignity of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee—is to be blind to the fact that American democracy has descended into low farce, which is the single most important element of the 2016 campaign. 

From Tiger Beat On The Potomac:

"It was amazing because there were moments with the gorilla, the way he held that child, it was almost like a mother holding a baby. Looked so beautiful and calm and there were moments where it looked pretty dangerous," Trump went on to say. "I don't think they had a choice. I mean, probably they didn't have a choice. You have a child, a young child who is at stake, and, you know, it's too bad there wasn't another way. I thought it was so beautiful to watch that, you know, powerful, almost 500-pound gorilla, the way he dealt with that little boy, but it just takes one second. It's one second. It's not like it takes place over, well, he's going to do it in 30 seconds from now. It just takes one little flick of his finger, and I will tell you they probably had no choice."

The presumptive Republican nominee spent a portion of his press conference reading the mind of a dead gorilla. The handbasket is more than halfway to its ultimate destination.


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